Stories Behind Selected Paintings of Jan Vermeer and his Contemporaries The Dawn of the Global World in the 17th Century Dieter Electronic Commerce Group Institut für Softwaretechnik und Interaktive Systeme Technische Universität Wien Favoritenstraße 9-11/ Wien. Austria/Europe Fax: +43 (1)

View on Delft Jan Vermeer ~ × cm, Oil on canvas Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, NL

Notes tombstone in the Old Church of Delft “View on Delft” was painted from the south, Vermeer must have had access to a somewhat elevated position the tower of the New Church is shining in the sun following to the left we see the tower of the Old Church

Notes (2) in the left foreground we see a passenger ship with some people waiting to get on board two ships tied together on the right side of the picture are used for catching herrings herrings have moved southwards into the North Sea because of a period of global cooling in the 17th century the cooling was also responsible for the plague epidemics in that time

Officer and a Laughing Girl Jan Vermeer ~ × 46 cm, Oil on canvas Frick Collection, New York, USA

Notes in the picture we see a soldier talking to a girl alone in a room on the wall we see a map of the Netherlands the map is oriented towards the west with land colored blue and water colored brown for comparison see a map of the Netherlands from 1658

Notes (2) the soldier is wearing an impressive hat made from beaver felt the fur of beaver was treasured for making stable and water resistant hats beaver population, however, was reduced due to hunting so, alternatively, hats were made from felted sheep wool, not as stable as beaver though

Notes (3) beaver fur came to Europe from North America (Canada) - in exchange for knives contact with native American population because of the search for a land passage to China through America

Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window Jan Vermeer ~ × 64.5 cm, Oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany dresden.de/en/museen/alte_meister.html

A Maid Asleep Jan Vermeer ~ x 76.5 cm, Oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Girl Interrupted in Her Music Jan Vermeer ~ x 67 cm, Oil on canvas Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, Germany

Woman With a Pearl Necklace Jan Vermeer ~ x 45 cm, Oil on canvas Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Reading Woman Pieter Janssens Elinga ( ~1682) ? 75.5 x 63.5 cm, Oil on canvas Alte Pinakothek, München, Germany pinakothek/

The Lute Player Hans Hendrick Maertensz (~ ) x 39 cm, Oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Notes we see a woman reading a letter by an open window it is a love letter, x-ray showed that Vermeer originally had a Cupid on the wall, which he omitted in the final painting it is the same room as in “Officer and a Laughing Girl” and the woman is wearing the same dress note the mirroring effect of the window

Notes (2) in the foreground we see a table a Turkish carpet is moved aside, the carpet was too precious to cover the floor on the table we see a bowl with fruit the bowl is porcelain made in China porcelain appears also in other paintings of Vermeer and his time contemporary “Girl Reading …” made with Lego pieces

Notes (3) porcelain from China was valued in Europe much finer than European tableware made of clay Chinese salesmen sold pieces that did not meet the Chinese standard of beauty some pieces were even built for the European market, e.g. bowls for soup the were considerably larger than the ones for the Chinese market

The Geographer Jan Vermeer x 46.6 cm, Oil on canvas Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The Astronomer Jan Vermeer x 45 cm, Oil on canvas Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

The Astronomer Gerrit Dou ( ) x 29 cm, Oil on panel Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, The Netherlands

Notes we see a person that is completely absorbed by his work on the table we see a map the geographer is holding a divider he looks up in a moment of reflection other maps are on the left in front of the windows and on the floor on a cupboard we see a globe, made by Hendrik Hondius

Notes (2) the person possibly is Antony van Leeuwenhoek, a draper, surveyor and scholar on Delft he appears also in “The Astronomer” by Vermeer Antony van Leeuwenhoek acted as executor when Vermeer’s widow Catharina announces insolvency

Notes (3) the knowledge of the world was constantly increasing during the 17th century geographers were integrating the observations of sailors to produce ever more exact maps many ships wrecked because of incomplete knowledge of the world the latitude was quite easy to determine for the navigator, the longitude was not until the 18th century as an example a page of the Hondius-Atlas

Woman Holding a Balance Jan Vermeer x 38 cm, Oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., USA

Woman Weighing Coins Pieter de Hooch (~ ) x 53 cm, Oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

A Man Weighing Gold Cornelis de Man ( ) x 68 cm, Oil on canvas Private collection

The Moneylender Gerrit Dou ( ) x 23 cm, Oil on wood Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Notes we see a woman holding a balance the woman is possibly Vermeer’s wife Catharina the painting was also known as “Woman weighing pearls” there are, however, no pearls to be weighted on the table there are, however, coins weighing coins was a popular sujet in that time

Notes (2) maybe Vermeer was inspired by “Woman weighing coins” by de Hooch weighing of coins was a common routine in the 17th century because of usage the soft coins lost weight essential for economic transactions was the price of the metal and not the face value printed on the coins silver was the currency in the 17th century

Notes (3) silver came from Japan and South America the Netherlands were exporting most of Japan’s silver, Spain and Portugal that of South America the purchasing power of silver was higher in Asia than in Europe so, most of the silver finally ended in China

The End Vermeer and his family were never particularly wealthy, they made their living through selling his paintings and his art trade when France came to the Netherlands in the war of 1672, the art market came to a standstill with catastrophic consequences for artists like Vermeer after he died on 15 December 1675 he was buried in the Old Church his widow Catharina had to announce insolvency a little later

Source The idea for this presentation is based on the book Timothy Brook, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World, Profile Books, London, Deutsche Übersetzung Timothy Brook, Vermeers Hut: Das 17. Jahrhundert und der Beginn der globalen Welt, Verlag Klaus Bittermann, Berlin, The images were taken from Web Gallery of Art: Wikipedia: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Vermeer Essential Vermeer: Flickr: Mapsorama: